A Man In Love
by KatLeePT
Summary: Cole stands beside Piper. Alternate Universe. Male/female romance.


He walks into the kitchen just in time to see Piper freeze the wait staff and two pans of falling food. "Freezing the help?" he jests with a smile that fades when she looks at him. He can see the depth of frustration in her beautiful, brown eyes, and his heart immediately aches for her. She wants to scream; he reaches out, all teasing gone, and pulls her close against him.

Piper's answer is muffled by his shirt; he hold tightly and strokes her hair and back. "Shush," he murmurs, kissing her raven hair. "It's going to be okay."

"How?!" she demands, pulling back just enough so that she can look up at him. "How is anything ever going to be okay again?! How am I supposed to do this?! I can't be everywhere at once! I have to be here! I have to run this place, and I can't save the world from here! Why can't the Powers That Be just leave us the heck alone?!"

"Because they need you," he answers simply, soothingly. He cups her face and brushes her tears away with the pads of his thumbs. He wants to add more. He wants to tell her again how much he need her, but he knows that's not what she needs to hear right now. "You can do this," he tells her. "You've got this."

"What makes you think that?"

"Because you're superior."

Piper's mouth opens and shuts and then flies open again. "I am so not superior!"

"Yes, you are!"

"Cole, just because I'm a Witch - "

He shakes his head.

"Because I'm a Charmed One - "

Quietly, he shakes his head again, this time while suppressing a smile.

"Because I'm - "

"Because you're you," he interrupts her. She looks at him, clearly confused and still perturbed, but she gives him a moment to explain himself. "Because you, Piper Halliwell, are superior in every way to every woman I have ever known before, Witch, mortal, or Demon. You are the most beautiful, strongest, most generous, most caring, most loving - " She's smiling now and blushing lightly. " - most wonderful woman I have ever known," he concludes. His hands drop to hers, and he lifts her hands inside of his to his mouth. Gently, he kisses those hands that are always working, rather it's to save the world, run her club, cook something, or just do some simple thing for her family that wouldn't get done if it wasn't for her. "And you're not alone."

"Cole," she says, shaking her head in marvellment.

He suddenly her face again, but this time, he doesn't brush any more tears away for there are no more to clear from her lovely face. Instead, he lowers his mouth onto hers. His tongue sweeps into her insides, plundering her mouth, drowning in her sweetness, and giving her another piece of his soul with their passionate kiss. Then, as suddenly and unexpectedly as he had began kissing her, he lifts his head. He strokes her cheeks and hair and tells her sternly, "Go."

She opens her mouth, but she is, to his delight, speechless. "I've got this. Go save the world again. Go help your sisters. I'll keep this part of our world safe and going smoothly." It was a hectic Friday night. He didn't know how smoothly any business in San Francisco could run on the first Friday of the month, but he was determined to keep her from worrying about this place when she had more important matters on her proverbial plate.

Her frown lifts, her lips arching upward into a beaming smile that is all the physical reward he needs. "You're amazing, you know that?" she says with a little laugh.

"What I know is that I'm a lucky man to have you as my lady, and," he glances at the workers, "they're about to unfreeze any second now. Go. I'll be here when you're done." It's still sometimes hard not to charge into battle beside her, but he's come to understand that there are nights like tonight that she needs him more to keep her personal life running smoothly than she does on the Wiccan battlefield.

He turns to scoop food back into one of the upturned pans but pauses when she grabs his neck. She has to stand on tip toe to reach him, but she does without hesitation and while still grinning. "Thank you," she breathes against his lips before kissing him quickly and running out the door.

Left behind, Cole quickly turns both pans right side up and puts the food back into them. He sets one into the frozen hands of the worker who had bumped into Piper, then grabs the other one just the people unfreeze. The boy blinks at him in confusion. "I thought - "

"Go take care of your order," Cole tells him, and he scurries to obey without any more questions. Some one calls for the pan Cole's holding. He passes to them, then walks to the front. Once, he shied away from people. He'd still like to - P3 certainly gets more than its fair share of idiots -, but he has a wonderful reason for staying and a better one still for dealing with these people. Anything Piper needs, he will always gladly do. Bold and confident, a man deeply and thoroughly in love, he steps up to the counter, determined to always help his lady achieve not just her destiny but her every dream as well.

The End


End file.
